THE IDYLLS OF THE QUEEN → SENTENCE MEME [ 2 / 3 ]
Part two of a three part series of lines and dialogue taken from The IDYLLS OF THE QUEEN by Phyllis Ann Karr, an Arthurian murder mystery featuring Sir Kay and Sir Mordred as Begrudging Buddy Cops ™. Feel free to change pronouns or anything else to better suit your needs.
_____’s interested in justice, not revenge.
Justice, revenge — two words for the same thing.
You’ll be all unprepared when the nuns attack.
I see your noble worships be wondering at my Beauty.
Nay then, she’s mine, free and honest.
Be ye willing to hear tale, your noble worships?
I name him in my prayers morn and night.
God and Holy Mother bless you twice over!
Someday, when I’m more of the mood to meet you in battle, I can use that slander as well as any other excuse to fight.
An hour’s combat with _____ is the safest practice a man can take with unblunted weapons.
Nevertheless, if you should end this evening killed or laid up in bed, nursing an improbable wound, do you fully trust me to continue our quest?
When you’re forty years older, you might know a little something of what you’re talking about.
A joust in friendship hardly fulfills a vow of vengeance.
And you accuse us women of over-romancing.
A man who would hang forty knights for love of a dame should have loved her enough to go back to her.
Only a guiltless man would be so willing to accept the appearance of guilt.
We know you would have offered yourself up as her champion if you had thought of these things before _____.
They don’t teach ‘em vengefulness and poison at the Castle of the Graile, lad.
Ambition may twist a man’s thoughts into strange patterns.
You’ll have to work harder than that if you want to throw the Sword in the Stone back in my teeth.
I have most of the work and none of the glory.
When you start accusing your own brothers, then it’s plain the serious talk is done.
I’ve carved this ring too large for my fingers. It may fit yours.
And will you not do something to prevent its coming true?
The reason you got into my dream is because I’ve had to look at your face all day, every day for the last four days.
I do suffer from a fascination with serpents, do I not?
It looks like an ordinary lake.
Somewhere beneath that water is a city richer than Caerleon.
Will we see the blue sky and the clouds, too? Or will we see little fishes instead of birds swimming over our heads?
The City in the Lake, ruled always by a lady — sometimes a wicked dame, sometimes a kindly one, always a powerful one.
I think the first Lady of the Lake must have been Adam’s paramour Lilith.
They say that much of the old magic can only be taught to a man by a woman, and to a woman by a man.
You’re waxing poetic this evening.
I hardly expected ever to see this night.
What in Ihesu’s Holy Name are you talking about?
What is your plan, now you’ve brought me this far?
Damn you, ____, have you gone completely out of your mind?
I could not allow my thoughts to stagnate in an obsession with my own encroaching death.
Your brains are even more rattled than we thought.
What gave you the idea you were important enough to attract an assassin?
God, don’t you have enemies of your own to kill you in open tourney or ambush?
What truth? If you’re talking about your lunatic fancies as ‘truth’ they’re a pile of dead flies!
You risked no more than one or two lives at most.
Come out from the water and arm yourself!
Now, repeat your slander of the Queen.
Strike me quickly, _____. Now, while we’re both in the mood.
Let’s get out of here before our armor rusts off our bodies.
The King will not thank you for this.
I don’t appreciate being played the fool and goaded into attacking you like another one of your bloody puppets.
If you want to be murdered on command, you’re going to have to tell me why.
You can just lie down, drown, and damn yourself, for all I care.
I assume that a knight seeking the company of the Lady of the Lake should hail her with no less care and courtesy than one seeking admittance into a lesser stronghold.
You rely a great deal on your influence over the Dame of the Lake. Do you truly expect her to do your beck and call?
My brothers inherited the sound of life from her, I the sound of death.
I am more fully my mother’s son than any of my brothers.
Do you remember when I first came to _____’s court? I was bright and eager then, was I not? Filled with pure ideals and noble aspirations — too noble, perhaps.
I was very young and very innocent then, aside from being in love with two or three fair dames and damsels at once.
You do not even know us. How do you know our fate?
You are the fruit of incest, heinous in the sight of God and man.
God! You’ve killed him, and he had a prophecy for me!
No doubt his prophecy for you was that you would kill me.
That would make me a fortunate knight, not an unfortunate one.
I tried to be killed in that day’s tourney — Ihesu, how I tried!
I knew I was fated to fulfill the prophecy somehow, as surely as Judas was fated to betray Our Lord.
For the last time, I did not try to poison you.
For years I have been waiting for the stroke to fall, wondering whether they would find their chance to murder me.
If you decide you’re going to live up to some foul prophecy, that’s your choice.
How did you get there without us seeing you? Invisibility?
Why should I tell you my craft?
I watch the battles of knights, but I do not eavesdrop on their private conversations.
Would you have saved him in the last moment?
I was reasonably confident you would not strike him down.
You would not have come here, stood on the beach calling me, and threatened to throw stones into the streets of my city, if you did not intend to tell me the reason.
Oh, no — you’re not going to walk away from us like this!
I have saved your King’s life. I have saved it three times.
I do not need to demonstrate my reliability at your command. No, not even at the command of the High King himself.
I have always known well enough when to come and save your King.
Would you prefer I hovered constantly about your corrupt court, muttering in the King’s ear?
Best go back, before you drown.
I know all that was in your head, and you should know now why I dislike gaining such knowledge. It was not pleasant for you, and it was still less pleasant for me.
To see all the private sins and passions of another in a single moment! If sacramental confession were a tenth part so revealing, no man would ever turn priest.
Next time, at least do it on dry land.
Ihesu, Dame, there must be something you can do!
We’d all have been better off without these damn prophecies.
Aren’t you going to offer us your hospitality?
My Lake? You wish to come down into my Lake and drown? Wet lodgings you would have with my mermaids, Sir Knight!
It is not my fault you wounded one another in your silly quarrel.
Poor man! Is your curiosity so hot for what you’ve been denied?
And you men put the blame on Eve and excuse Adam.
Any woman as reluctant as you to welcome guests must be ashamed of her household.
Your famous city must not live up to its reputation.
You forget he’s not aware that I know of the prophecy. Shall we tell him?
A man entering his fourth decade is old enough to choose for himself whether or not to bind his soul to a prophecy.
You must look for other safeguards against _____ than coddling him.
You might try bullying _____ into a better state of soul. That would be more your style than sweet words and soft treatment.
I suppose you can see everything that’s in my mind now?
Goodnight now, sweet knight.
You must have had a pleasant tete-a-tete. Does the Lady’s dear husband know?
Felt something like getting your brainpan stirred with a hot poker.
Well, she may search my head if she wishes. The secret’s festered long enough.
I would have been very sure of your guilt indeed if you had swapped off my head as I expected.
Dame _____ may be a chaste witch, but she need not impose her rules on all her pretty damsels.
Go to sleep. You’ll need your rest for the morning.
Your pardon, pure _____. It was the carnal appetites of my father speaking.
Not all of us can subsist on the idyllic worship of an unattainable lady.
